I've... given up my past, my life, and even my name
As I am awaiting the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, to my surprise Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio released Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. This takes place after the events of Yakuza 6 and during the events of the 7th game. This title uses the action beat-em-up gameplay that the previous games have done, rather than the turn-based RPG mechanics that were used in Y7.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fantastic story with many twists
- Very fun gameplay with a lot of abilities
- Fun upgrades and interesting gadgets
- Tons of side content to do
- Excellent soundtrack
- Beautiful graphics that look amazing
Cons
- The story is a bit on the shorter side
- Agent style is a little underwhelming
Story
Kazuma Kiryu is now putting his Yakuza life behind him, assuming the name of Joryu and effectively becoming a dead man to everyone he loves and the world. However, one night during a mission he was assigned to someone seems to know what actually happened to him and wants to bring him out of hiding. Joryu must find out what is actually going on and take down whoever is trying to expose him, but it also seems a lot more is going on than it seems.
a cameo appearance. To top it all off, the ending to this game actually made me shed some tears which is one of the first and only games to do so.
The only issue I had with the story in this game, is that it’s really short. I completed it in like 6-7 hours at best.The story for this game is honestly fantastic, it fills in some gaps that Y7 had, and the characters are overall amazing. It will also showcase some events from Y7 aswell as some of the characters making
Gameplay
The gameplay is very fun, and I enjoyed playing through the beat-em-based combat as always. This is also the first game where I played on professional difficulty, which was manageable for me. You have access to two fighting styles, Agent and Yakuza, each having its own set of skills and abilities for Joryu to utilize. Agent style allows him to use the Daidoji Factions’s specialized martial arts. It’s a fighting style that is very fast paced, with fast punches and kicks. Joryu can also use special gadgets in combat, including a grappling hook called the Spider, AI drones to home in on enemies called Hornets, Jet engines on his shoes called Serpents, and Firefly - a bomb disguised as a cigarette.
Then there is the Yakuza fighting style, which is more mixed with the Brawler and Dragon style used in the previous games. It now has triple finishers and a new red aura so your enemies can know you are a threat. All of his heat actions are back, from all the way back to the first Yakuza game, with two new ones added to spice things up. Overall, the Yakuza style is a slower fighting style and the one I used the most during combat, as it was my preferred choice.
There are also times in the game when enemies do a special attack that will do massive damage. Joryu can counter these moves with a counterattack and deal some damage to the enemy while doing so. The Heat Action Meter has also changed - if you take damage, the Heat Action Meter will no longer deplete, the only attacks that can make it deplete are ones that use electricity.
While in Extreme Heat Mode any damage done to Joryu will be done to the meter instead and will keep doing this until it’s depleted or shut off. There is also gear you can equip that will help you out in combat by providing state buffs.
To get upgrades in the game, you can do side content to get money and Akame Points. The latter are given to you after you are done with a side quest. You can get stuff like new moves, health, attack damage, etc. There is a ton of side content to do and I did a bunch of it throughout my playthrough to make sure I got enough Akame Points to get some upgrades. I never had an issue with getting enough Akame Points, though I did have an issue getting money as that is also used to get upgrades. However, there are ways to get money - it’s just that I ran out most of the time getting upgrades and buying healing items.
As mentioned before, The Akame Network has a few side quests for you to complete that will earn you money and Akame Points. There are also Stroll and Patrol missions for you to complete that will give you the same rewards. This can raise your Akame Rank and the higher it is, your rank will go up in the Castle, which is a secret area you can visit that has a colosseum for you to fight other people.
However, I do have one issue with the gameplay and that is with the Agent style; it’s underwhelming. The issue comes with the fact that the Yakuza style is better for taking out enemies. While the Spider Gadget is useful for crowd control and there are upgrades to grab more enemies with it, that also has an issue. To use any of the gadgets you have to hold down the button. So, for example, if I want to use the Spide Gadget, I will have to hold the B button on my controller, and this applies to the other ones as well. To get them out is a bit slow and you are kind of a sitting duck while doing so.
Except for the Serpent gadget, that one makes you move, and it seems to be quick to activate. I wish I could have used Firefly more but besides the delay of holding X and the time it takes for the smoke to explode, it's not worth it as sometimes it will be out of range of enemies and can hurt you and your allies.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics for the game are honestly beautiful with some of the scenes being simply breathtaking, all backed up with a fantastic soundtrack.
I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I experienced no issues while I was playing, and the game ran fine for me. Although there were some drops in my frames a few times that may be due to the fact I need new PC parts, only time will tell if I can run the next game.
Final Verdict
I had a ton of fun with Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, but I need to mention that if you are starting out with the series, I'd avoid this game for now, as you won’t understand the story of this game all that well. Also, the game is only 6-7 hours long. There is a lot of side content but that only brings it up to about 20-40 hours in length. I’d wait for a sale before buying this game as 64.99 CDN is a lot of money if you only want to focus on the game's story.